Published by Self-published Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Format: eARC
From award-winning author Erika Kelly comes the third standalone title in her smoking hot series about four elite athlete brothers raised in the Tetons by their eccentric, billionaire dad and uncle, The Bad Boyfriend Series! Don’t miss your chance to meet the swoony Gray Bowie in THE CARELESS BOYFRIEND! Grab your copy today!
Gray Bowie broke the bro code: he fell in love with his best friend’s girlfriend.
For years, he hid his feelings…until one terrible night, it all came to a head.
Since her life blew up in high school, Knox Holliday has spent her time honing her skills as a couture wedding dress designer. But, just weeks before her debut, a freak accident wipes out her collection. The culprit: her ex’s former best friend, Gray Bowie.
Gray does everything he can to get her career back on track. As they work together, they find forgiveness and start to stitch together something that looks a lot like love. But, at the very moment they realize they have a chance for something real, her ex comes back to town, bringing opportunities Gray can’t provide.
This time, Gray’s not going to step aside, so he can only hope Knox will hold onto his heart.
She’s his dream, but will he be hers?S
Stephanie’s 4 Star Review:
I received a free copy of this book from the author.
You know – everything that happened to us as kids impacts how we act/react to our environment as adults. It’s true. It’s especially true for these characters. Yes, this is a work of fiction, but it’s one of those that deals with real life issues.
Knox, Gray, and Robert were all close friends growing up. Knox and Robert were a couple for years, a relationship Gray would love to have with her instead. Then one awful night Gray couldn’t take it anymore and just walked out and never looked back.
Fast forward 10 years and Gray comes crashing back into Knox’s life. Like literally. HA! To make up for the destruction they caused and ruined her creations he’s offered to help make things happen for her in a different way. A route she never thought about taking.
This, I thought was so sweet. Gray didn’t have to do any of this for her but his love for her is still so strong after being apart for a decade he’d do anything to help her. Now of course there’s some other stuff at play here. No spoilers, people! You’ll just have to read it. *smile* The biggest hurdle these two face is trust. In themselves and each other.
I think the author did a great job weaving in the real life torment along with the fantasy of their reality. That won’t make sense now but when you finish the book it’s likely to. I enjoyed reading their story. OH! This is book three in a series but you absolutely *do not* have to read the other two before you read this one. I wasn’t lost at all and moved through the story just fine.
Stephanie’s Interview with Author Erika Kelly:
Who or what inspired you to start writing?
I’ve been a storyteller all my life. From the time I was a little girl, I’d put myself to sleep at night with what I called dream sets. It was just this thing I did, so I never talked about it, never thought it meant anything. Until one day, in my early twenties, my friend and I were hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains, and we came across this really weird sight. We just stood there looking at it, trying to make sense of what we were seeing, and I went on a riff about how it came to be, and my friend said, You should be a writer. That simple idea was a game-changer for me. Taking the thing I do as naturally as breathing and turning it into a job, a career? It was unbelievably exciting to think I could turn the stories in my head into books!
What do you find the most challenging about being an author?
When I sold my first series, I thought, phew. Now, I can sit back and just write books! Boy, was I wrong. Authors are small business owners, and writing is only half the job. It’s not just promoting your books; it’s constantly adapting to changes in a rapidly-shifting marketplace. And I’ll tell you something. People love to disparage the romance genre, but I’ve never met a smarter, savvier group of people in my life. Romance authors do their research, figure out what works, and then turn around and share their knowledge with their colleagues. It’s a dynamic, generous, and supportive community.
If you could write any genre – outside the one you currently write – what would it be? Do you have ideas to write it in the future?
It took me a long time to find my voice and choose a genre. I started out writing screenplays—most memorably, a romantic time travel and a spoof on Rambo-style movies. When I found my medium in novels, I seemed to be writing a hybrid of Women’s Fiction and romance. But that’s only because I didn’t know romance was a thing. I didn’t grow up with a mom or aunt or grandma who read those kinds of books. Mostly, as an English Literature major, I read literary fiction. It wasn’t until a few years into writing that an editor wrote on my manuscript, Does this author know she writes romance? Game-changer number 2! Romance is a thing? I went right out to the book store and found my heart in the romance section. So, yeah, I’m sticking with contemporary romance!
Do you have any advice for those that aspire to be an author? How to get started, what they should do when they’re done?
Writing is a craft. And that means you get better with everything you write. So, the very best advice I have is to write, write, write. Don’t think about being published. Think about learning the rhythms of storytelling—the character arcs, the escalation of tension. Think about hitting certain marks—do I have poignant moments? Will this scene make my reader swoon? Have I made my reader believe that the hero is the only man in the world for the heroine, and the heroine’s the only woman in the world for the hero (or whoever your love interests are)? As you’re working on your craft, take the time to join author groups, so you can ask questions and put together the right team to help you get where you want to be. Figure out your goal. What do you hope to achieve with this novel? Do you want a career? Do you want to make lists? Once you’re clear about where you’re going, you can make a plan to get there. As Antoine de Saint-Exupery said, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” After you’ve done all that, then hit publish and enjoy the ride!
Grab your copy of THE CARELESS BOYFRIEND in eBook or paperback today!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2DtCbeE
Apple Books: https://apple.co/2OyMkuO
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-careless-boyfriend
Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/2YAWD6m
And don’t miss the first two standalones titles in The Bad Boyfriends Series, THE WORLD’S WORST BOYFRIEND and THE HEARTLESS BOYFRIEND! Grab your copies today!
About Erika Kelly:
Award-winning author Erika Kelly has been spinning romantic tales all her life–she just didn’t know it. Raised on the classics, she didn’t discover romantic fiction until later in life. From that moment on, she’s been devouring the genre and has found her true voice as an author. Over three decades she’s written poems, screenplays, plays, short stories, and all kinds of women’s fiction novels. Married to the love of her life and raising four children, she’s lived in two countries and seven states, but give her pen and paper, a stack of good books, and a steaming mug of vanilla chai latte and she can make her home anywhere.
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